New hires to fight Fishers fires?

Wednesday

Apr 9, 2014 at 12:53 PM

By Melody Burri melody@messengerpostmedia.com

VICTOR — Thinning volunteer ranks have left just a handful of firefighters — paid and volunteer — to carry the burden of protecting 26 square miles in the Fishers Fire District, which serves the western portion of the town of Victor.Some say adding more paid staff is the answer. Others maintain that better recruitment will fill in the gaps. Either way, it’s a discussion that ignites strong opinions in not only Fishers, but in Canandaigua and in neighboring fire districts and departments.Following the Fishers Board of Commissioners public hearing in late March, a resolution was presented, discussed, amended twice and eventually passed — with four in favor and one abstaining — that approves employment of “up to four additional full-time paid firefighters in 2014, at a salary and benefits package of $85,000 each.”A retooling of the “up to four” verbiage allows commissioners to explore other funding options and hiring scenarios without having to bring potential hires back to residents for another public hearing.“The salary could fluctuate depending on experience — $85,000 is the second-year rate,” said Fire District Treasurer Chauncy Young.Fishers Fire District residents will not pay more in taxes this year, said Board of Commissioners Chair Maureen Bills, but with four new paid staffers, it’s possible fire taxes could go up in 2015.The eventual hiring of four more career firefighters would allow for two firefighters to be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Bills. Currently, one person is staffed 24/7, and the district employs four full-time and two part-time career firefighters.The goal, she said, would be to add four more to the district’s current four paid firefighters and then add another four in 2015. The district will apply for a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to employ an additional four full-time paid firefighters in 2015.“This isn’t saying we’re going to hire four more people (in 2015),” said Bills. “It’s saying we’re going to apply for the SAFER grant. If we don’t get it, we need to think about whether we’re going to move ahead.”

Recruitment strugglesDriving the push for paid firefighters is the decreasing ability of the Fishers Volunteer Fire Association to recruit and retain volunteers.“Our volunteer numbers are way down, but our call numbers are going up year by year,” said Young.Year-end statistics show that Fishers firefighters responded to 612 calls in 2010, 653 calls in 2011 and 702 calls in 2012, with the number of calls dropping back to 628 in 2013.According to Fire Chief Andy Stromfeld, a 35-year veteran of firefighting, the largest number of volunteers Fishers has seen at one time was 34.“Right now there are 14 people available to respond if a call comes in,” he said. “Five of those are officers, and you don’t need all those officers at a fire.”Recruiting in the Fishers Fire District is ”an interesting animal,” Stromfeld said. Although five new people volunteered in 2013, only one was still active at the end of March.“I don’t really know what the answer is,” he said. “I think this is a very difficult area — a relatively small community to recruit from.”The problem is not a new one, according to Ontario County Administrator John Garvey, who is also a Victor village resident. The challenge of attracting volunteers has been around for several decades, and it’s felt throughout the county.“Fishers feels it most acutely now,” Garvey said, “because we’re not as rural a county as we used to be. People get into their cars and drive to work in Rochester. They don’t hop off their tractors to go fight a fire. It’s a problem of the changing nature of the county as it becomes more suburban and less agricultural.”Garvey also pointed to the hefty training requirements— a sizable commitment to expect from younger volunteers. Stromfeld concurred and called it “a big problem.”Another challenge Fishers faces is its aging ranks. As volunteer numbers are decreasing, the average age of those volunteers is increasing — it’s now 51. That could present limitations on the most physically challenging situations.

A matter of safetyRyan Miller, who started volunteering in 2011, said about 60 percent of the time the department is sending out one firefighter to a call, “and one firefighter can’t do anything until others come.”Unfortunately, said Miller and Young, the backups don’t always arrive quickly — or in the numbers needed.District statistics show the average number of firefighters responding to a call has dropped sharply in the last three years — from 6.9 firefighters per incident in 2011 to 5.7 per incident in 2012 and bottoming out at 3.9 per incident in 2013.“When it’s me and a career firefighter on a firetruck at 2 a.m. — it’s a fairly substantial problem,” said Chief Stromfeld. “I recommend that the fire district takes very seriously the things I’ve been saying for two years now. You need to hire at least four more people to provide safety for (each other). We’re not operating safely with a single individual pulling up on a (fire call).”Commissioners voted unanimously “in the interest of safety to have a goal of maintaining two firefighters at the station and ready to answer a call at all times.” Those firefighters could be either paid or volunteer.Complicating matters further is the question of where round-the-clock staff will be housed. Plans to expand and modernize Fishers Fire District’s High Street Station No. 2 hit a snag when construction bids for a new $1.5 million project came in over budget. Among those upgrades were living and sleeping space to accommodate 24-hour staffing. Commissioners and HBT Architects of Pittsford will now create a scaled-back version of the original design, and new bids are expected to be solicited again by Fishers Fire District.

In neighboring departmentsMeanwhile, in Canandaigua, the paid-versus-volunteer debate continues in the legal arena. The Canandaigua Firefighters Association is seeking damages from the City of Canandaigua for the layoffs of nine paid firefighters in 2010 — a measure taken to bridge a $1.7 million funding gap.The state’s Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) will determine if the city was within its rights to transfer work from paid firefighters to volunteers without negotiating with the firefighters’ union. City Council voted in 2009 to reduce the number of city firefighters from 15 to six, which was carried out in 2010. The city has since added three full-time positions, bringing the number of career firefighters within the Canandaigua Fire Department to nine, according to Fire Chief Mark Marentette.Over in Cheshire, it’s a different scenario. According to Cheshire Volunteer Fire Department Chief Michael Miller, the department’s wide coverage area and increasing number of calls have prompted plans to construct a second fire station on Routes 5 and 20 across from the Canandaigua Town Hall.The Cheshire department currently has 54 active firefighters listed on its website, and mans a large area within the town of Canandaigua known as fire box 500, an area west and southwest of the city.

County support?Fishers Fire Commissioner Galen Powers is all about finding a solution that doesn’t require taxpayers to open their wallets any wider."I think taxes should not go up, and we need to figure out how to live within that boundary condition,” said Powers. “It is easy to spend tax money; the difficult choices are not spending."Service costs money, he said. For the most part, Ontario County’s lower tax rates do drive decision making, such as whether to write a check for more paid firefighters, he said.“If you choose lower taxes, then you have chosen lower services,” Powers said. “If one wants a high service level, there are Monroe County locations that provide them. Fishers’ (fire tax) rate is near the top of Ontario County tax rates and near bottom of the Monroe County tax rates.”One possible funding solution that wouldn’t directly impact Fishers taxpayers was tossed around by fire district commissioners: seeking financial support from Ontario County. The rationale is that the Fishers district is charged with protecting one of the county’s top money-makers, Eastview Mall, and it would be in the county’s best interest to help assure appropriate protection. In light of Fishers’ volunteer drought, paid firefighters funded by the county would be ready at all times should the need arise inside or outside of the mall.Garvey wasn’t sure if that idea would fly.“We dispatch to 28 fire companies,” said Garvey. “It’s something we’d have to look at very carefully. And if we gave (aid) to one company, I’m sure the others would want it too.”Meanwhile, Fishers payroll expenses continue to climb. In 2010, $366,481 was paid out in salaries and benefits for career firefighters, representing 37 percent of the district’s tax revenue. In 2011, payroll was $401,913, or 38 percent of the tax revenue. In 2012 that number rose to $409,475, or 37 percent, and in 2013 it was $500,686, or 43 percent.Recruiting volunteer firefighters is one of the county’s, and state’s, biggest problems, Garvey said.“There’s no one simple answer to this,” said Garvey. “I don’t have any pat answers. If I had an easy answer, I’d certainly give it to them.”